Three Protective Systems Vital to a Dog’s Health

Dogs have three main protective systems that work together to protect, support and promote health and wellbeing. These are the skin and coat, digestive (gastrointestinal tract), and immune system. The performance of each is interlinked to the other. Less than optimal performance in one often leads to adverse effects in the other systems.

The skin and coat system is the largest organ in the body. The skin is the main organ through which the body interacts with the outside environment. The skin and coat have a variety of protective functions including providing a physical barrier for the rest of the body against the external environment.

The digestive system works to protect the dog in two ways. The first is by digesting and absorbing essential nutrients that can be utilised by it and the other protective systems to promote overall health and wellbeing.

Secondly, the digestive system plays an immunologic role to defend against bacteria and toxins that have entered the body from the outside world. In fact, the digestive system is the primary site for the body’s immune system response, containing as much as 70% of the body’s immune cells.

The immune system is central to all the dog’s protective systems. It is a complex network in the body designed to provide the dog with protection against foreign invaders that can trigger disease, negatively impact health, or affect overall wellbeing. It is the role of the immune system to recognise invading agents and then repel or destroy them.

Each of these three systems operates at its peak efficiency only when supplied with vital nutrients at an appropriate level from the dog’s diet. That’s why PRO PLAN^®provides high quality food, made with high quality ingredients, that will help ensure constant replenishment of all the vital nutrients necessary for the protective systems to function at peak performance.